I was struck by the layers, textures and different shades of brown and green of the overwintered plants across the lake on my way to work.  So, I took a picture which I quite like.

It was taken using my compact, ISO80, 1/50secs at f/3.2.

This is obviously a heavily cropped photo – it is another attempt at the set subject competition that the camera club is holding this year – a crop ratio of 1:3. I have the full picture on Flickr which I also like, and have left in colour with only a small amount of cropping.

What I noticed when searching through some photos that I forgot I had taken was the atmospheric nature of the snow in the car headlights. I think this is made more atmospheric by converting to black and white. The close crop then concentrates the eye in this area of the photo, the blurring adding a sense of motion as the snow came down at what should have been rush hour (such that it is in Daventry) just before Christmas. The barrier at the back also reflects the tracks in the road which almost adds to the motion even though static.

The settings chosen by my camera were (on low light setting) 1/80 f/3.2 ISO3200 at 10.7mm.

I like the repeating patterns and effect of having a wide aperture (f/2.0).  This is another shot that I took on the industrial estate – as much as anything I thought I should have a walk in the snow and see if I could find something different to take.  This almost fit the bill – I hadn’t taken it in snow before.

I like the triangle of light sky at the top reflecting the snow at the bottom.  Other than that I don’t really have a lot to say about the photo – I guess it is just a matter of taste.

Settings were ISO200, 1/4000secs at f/2.0 using the aforementioned 50mm lens.

I took this on a whim when out for a walk in the snow, but not as an entry in the competition.  I cropped it savagely in Lightroom to try and concentrate on the couple out for the walk and to cut out a lot of parked vehicles and road furniture.  I like the warmth of the sun on the ground, the darkness and sharpness of the figures contrasting with the haziness in the background and the shape of the tree.

I was unhappy that there were so many lamposts visible, but when I look at the picture again I think they add to the vertical nature of the photo.

The thing that I don’t like that I didn’t notice at the time is the figure that is just the other side of the tree walking towards the couple.  In fact, as I watched they stopped and had a chat!

So, I will probably not enter this, the judge will think it is too messy, and someone will probably win with a letterbox style picture of beach huts or something, but at least I am thinking about different crops.

I had my 50mm lens on, settings were ISO100, 1/1250secs at f/3.2.

This is one of those shots that has potential, but has not quite got to the ten out of ten level.  I have been trying to get a decent picture of the frost on the bullrushes, but none of the million or so that I took came out quite as I had hoped.

This was slightly different to the others in that I wanted the bullrushes as part of the picture, not the only subject.  I wanted to get some of the sunlight in the background, with the layers of plants at the edge of the pond just ahead, with the branches forming another layer and the rushes at the front.  Ideally the rushes at the front should have been sharp with a little less sharpness further back to allow these to stand out a little more.

I have cropped the image and sharpened it slightly, but the main confession I have to make is to some cloning.  Yes, I am ‘fessing up, someone had kindly lobbed a beer bottle into the middle of the ice and it showed up nicely in front of the fallen branches and ruined the picture – thank you pointless idiot for your littering!

I like the foreground, I like the branches, I am not as keen on the crop (if I had left it higher at the top then there was a rather unattractive bit of warehouse in the way), the bullrushes could have been a bit sharper and not cross over the ‘horizon’ of the far bank.  The latter would be difficult to change without ladders as I am not very tall!

All in all, it may not sound like it, but I am pretty pleased with the resulting picture.

50mm lens was in use again (it is getting a bit like my macro lens!) allowing a lovely ISO100, f/6.3 and 1/100 secs.

I took a few pictures of this tree with its covering of frost, but decided to post this one for a couple of reasons.  Firstly there is the comparison with the earlier post that I did with the tree on a misty and not quite so frosty day.  Secondly, and more importantly, I love the way the sun catches the branches of the tree.  All of the foreground is in shade and the snow/frost gives it a cold, blue tint.  But the main part of the picture feels warm, with the apricot-coloured glow contrasting against the clear, blue sky.

Whether the tree is too central is open to debate, but the crop is there to remove the houses and lamp posts which would otherwise intrude and spoil the picture.

I am still in love with my 50mm lens, the settings were f/7.1 at 1/320secs on ISO 100.

However, when I zoomed in on the tree on the left I was struck by how sharp it was and how much detail had been captured (although it is not entirely obvious from this crop).

Whilst I like this group of trees I have since decided that I do not like the crop – I think that it is unbalanced, all of the trees are in the centre, but there is nothing to hold the picture in.  In the original picture there were more trees to the left and I think that helped with the balance.

I have included more of the picture in the shot at the bottom.  This is an improvement in terms of balance, but because the field slopes to the right, and there are no strong features on the right I think the photo is falling out of the frame.  What do you think?

Camera settings 1/200secs, f/8.0, ISO100, 50mm focal length using my EOS 400D.

Never fear – I have a camera with a small, light lens and a large rucksack in which it can reside.  In other words, I grabbed my D-SLR and took it to work.  I was afraid that my compact just wouldn’t do justice to the scenery.

So, at the risk of being late for work and with hands that felt as though they were going to fall off from frostbite I took pictures of the scenes which I see every day.  This is the small lake on the industrial estate which has been frozen for a few days now.  Although I took some photos mainly as record shots to compare the scenery over the months, I was particularly pleased with this when I saw it in Lightroom.

I like the the pattern of the snow on the water and the way it sweeps round to the right.  I also like the frosting on the trees and the detail in the reeds in the foreground.

The 400D was fitted with my 50mm lens, settings were ISO200, f/4.5 and 1/50 secs.  It was a bit of a surprise that the picture was not more blurred at these settings and with the shivering that was going on!

I think that this conveys how cold it was and how desolate it can be, although this tree is right on the edge of a housing estate!

I don’t have much else to say about this photo, but it was taken with my 50mm lens, ISO200, 1/200secs at f/13.

After months, if not years, of indecision I finally took the plunge and bought a 50mm lens, which is a slight telephoto for my digital, but will be a standard lens if I ever pluck up the courage and confidence to shoot film.

The great thing about the lens that I bought is that it opens up to f/1.4 and therefore lets in lots of light and can give pretty interesting perspectives and foci.

I took this shot on a quick walk around Daventry.  The camera was set to f/1.6 and ISO100 (I don’t think any of my plethora of other lenses would allow ISO100 in Winter!).  I opened it up to look at the effect that it would have on the depth of field.  In the camera, it does not look that different, but what I noticed straight away is how much the shrub with the berries and the fence post next to it stood out from the background.  Whilst the brick air shaft is still entirely recogniseable, it is much more three dimensional than previous photos I have taken.  An aperture of f/1.6 gave me a shutter speed of 1/2000 secs – I don’t think it has ever been that fast before!

(Yes, I know that the telephone wire is distracting, but it was there and there was nothing I could do about it.)